In a stunning, come-from-behind walk-off victory, No. 6 Long Beach State (15-3) clinched its fifth consecutive weekend series, defeating No. 11 UCLA (10-7) 3-2, Saturday afternoon in front of a packed house at Blair Field.
Down 2-0 to the Bruins in the ninth inning, Charles Brewer was about to record a complete-game shutout, until Devin Lohman led off with a single to right field. With one out, Jonathan Jones singled deep to right. With runners on the corners and Brewer tiring after throwing well over 100 pitches, threw a fastball to TJ Mittelstaedt who turned on it and sent a ball to the right-field warning track for a two-RBI triple to tie the game.
Brewer intentionally walked Danny Espinosa, loading the bases, and Jason Corder struck out. Brewer was then relieved by center fielder Justin Uribe, and Friday’s pitcher, Tim Murphy, took Uribe’s place in the outfield. But there was no relief, as Shane Peterson chopped a ball to the third base side, and third baseman Jermaine Curtis misplayed the ball, and threw over to first to late. Peterson beat the tag, allowing Mittelstaedt to score for the win.
“I was looking for a fastball,” Mittelstaedt said. “I stayed off the plate and he gave it to me. I stopped at second and looked over to see if it was gone and I kept going.”
Mittelstaedt was all smiles after scoring the game-winning run, as the sophomore left fielder had been struggling to hit all season.
“I got more aggressive in my last few at-bats,” Mittelstaedt said. “And then I got that hit, so it helps.” Prior to the ninth, the Dirtbags had no problem hitting, as they took 12 off Brewer, but failed to do much with runners on, as they left 11 total stranded throughout the game.
“We had five opportunities until the last one,” said Dirtbag head coach Mike Weathers. “I thought we battled hard. It just looked like we weren’t very good or we weren’t doing anything, but I thought our pitchers went through a lot of adversity, and I thought our hitters stayed with them.
“We didn’t do the job with runners in scoring position, because we did it all last night. We didn’t do it today until we needed it.”
Brewer received the loss and fell to 2-2 on the season, while David Brown pitched two innings to take his first win as a Dirtbag.
The series finale got underway at 5:15 with Vance Worley starting on the hill for the Dirtbags and Gavin Brooks for the Bruins.
